Changes all around in European football

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/07/2022 (1507 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Well, that was the off-season. If you blinked, you missed it.

Only 24 days after the last European club campaign officially ended with Real Madrid beating Liverpool in the Champions League Final, the new one got underway with a preliminary tournament in Iceland.

Four teams took part, representing Estonia, Andorra, San Marino and the host country, whose Vikingur Reykjavik prevailed in the short competition and progressed to the First Qualifying Round, which begins next week.

By then, many of the continent’s biggest clubs will have kicked off their training regimens. Chelsea and AC Milan, for example, get going this weekend; Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain reconvene Monday. Bayern Munich manager Julian Nagelsmann has graciously given his players an extra week’s holidays, and Pep Guardiola is requiring Manchester City to report by July 11.

A notable outlier, Manchester United commenced pre-season last Monday. And it’s with them that we lead off a look at some early storylines to follow.

The only way is up. Right?

Incoming Red Devils boss Erik ten Hag has wasted no time in launching what he hopes will be, and what needs to be, nothing short of an Old Trafford revolution. His sessions are long and very detailed—the sort of hands-on, teaching approach required to finally get the erstwhile English giants playing modern football.

Director Jon Murtough, meanwhile, has been tasked with getting the Dutchman some useful players, but has so far signed exactly no one. Frenkie de Jong is expected to join from Barcelona, but the midfielder never really wanted to leave the Catalan capital, and was rightfully sceptical of a prospective career-killing move to United.

He seems to have come around, but it’s a reality ten Hag, Murtough and everyone else at the club will need to correct before they can even think of glimpsing former glories.

Neymar on the move?

Christophe Galtier will be unveiled as PSG manager next week, and his assignment is a straightforward one: win the Champions League. One of the ways he plans to do it is by planting, and then nurturing, the spirit, unity and team-first mindset that has never seemed to take roots at Parc des Princes. And that’s bad news for Neymar.

With Kylian Mbappe under long-term contract and Lionel Messi the club’s prized commercial asset, the temperamental Brazilian could be headed for the exit. And Chelsea is a likely destination.

Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur have already bolstered their attacking corps this summer, and to keep pace with their top-four rivals it would make sense for the Blues, who have a new owner eager to spend, to at least make a play for the 30-year-old.

Barcelona are in big, big trouble

In normal circumstances, no club would even conceive of selling an in-prime Frenkie de Jong. But little is normal at Barcelona these days. Despite an auction of naming rights, the Blaugrana have a cash crisis. Riqui Puig, Oscar Mingueza, Samuel Umiti and Martin Braithwaite have been advised to seek new employment, and Gerard Pique is likely on his way out as well. Manager Xavi worked miracles to secure a second-place finish last term, but with further departures expected he’ll be hard-pressed to see off challenges from Atletico Madrid, Real Betis and Sevilla this time around.

Automated offsides for the World Cup

VAR technology made its high-profile debut at the 2018 World Cup, and four years on the offside rule will have automated help in Qatar. Each stadium will install 12 additional cameras to track 29 data points of each player, and a chip in the match ball will report its position 500 times per second. The information will upload to the VAR officials, who can then inform the referee as to uncaught offsides.

The obvious advantage here is precision — there can be no disputing a decision. The downside — and it’s a significant one — is more and longer stoppages, many of them no doubt to measure literal millimetres.

That said, from a player’s perspective, what with the conditions and fixture congestion, a few more stoppages isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Freebie, anyone?

Clubs that fail in the transfer market, and those that are pressed for cash, can always consider signing a free agent. And there are a number of good ones out there.

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Decorated Real Madrid left-back Marcelo can still do a job, and 6-5 defender Dan Axel Zagadou, formerly of Borussia Dortmund, is still just 23-years-old and can improve after a difficult season. Ousmane Dembele is a fascinating proposition. Prone to both injury and the occasional sulk, the forward is nevertheless an exceptional dribbler and, at his best, could improve almost any attack.

For those with a bit more money for wage demands, as well as an appetite for the mercurial, there is Argentina international Paulo Dybala. At 28, he should be right in the middle of his prime, but 2017-18 was the last time he scored more than 11 goals in a season for Juventus.

With pre-season training either well underway or beginning shortly, these players will be desperate to find somewhere to play ahead of the World Cup. In other words, salary expectations will be more flexible by the day.

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Twitter @JerradPeters